An Elegant Fusion of Indian Tradition and Italian Beauty

Florence felt like the right place from the very beginning. Sarah wanted their wedding to celebrate everything that mattered most – her Indian heritage, her Catholic faith, the beauty of Italy, and the people she and Thomas love. Villa il Garofalo, with its view across the rooftops of Florence and its quiet sense of history, gave them the space to bring all of that together.

The ceremony took place in a small Roman Catholic church in Florence, led by two priests who were close to the couple. It was followed by a reception back at the villa, where guests gathered for dinner under a canopy of lights. There was music, incredible food, a millefeuille cake made in front of everyone, and a surprise fireworks display.

Enjoy these lovely images by Punti di Bianco.

Villa il Garofalo is very close to the city centre and has a beautiful garden with a wonderful view of Florence.

Thomas spent time during college studying architecture within Università degli Studi di Firenze. Florence is a special place for him and is a large reason we wanted to come back to Italy for our wedding.

Being an international planning effort, all our vendors were suggested by our wedding planner, Consuelo. She provided multiple vendors with various styles and price points for us to pick from. We were intentional to pick teams that were near Florence to avoid any logistical issues. 

We both wanted to embrace our Indian heritage and we opted to wear traditional Indian outfits for our reception. My look was Neha Mehta Couture from Pernia’s Popup Shop, an Indian boutique.

Ordering my dress from a popup shop was a huge gamble – but in the end, with the help of my mother-in-law, the dress turned out perfectly. 

Later, I changed into an outfit from Ladlee, an Indian boutique in Atlanta.

Thomas wore a Ralph Lauren tuxedo. Ultimately, we both wanted a traditional look for the wedding with a nod to our Indian heritage in my wedding outfit, as well as our black reception outfits.

My father walked me down the aisle. My mother was escorted by my two brothers. We chose our own instrument music to be played live and combined it with traditional hymnals.

Our family priest, Reverand Father Pious Vachaparambil, Thomas’s Uncle, who came from Kerala, India, to celebrate the wedding also officiated our wedding. He was joined by Reverand Father Mathew Koshy, a family friend family from Atlanta. We followed traditional Roman Catholic Vows. 

Prior to the exchange of rings, we incorporated our traditional Indian marriage rites. This included the ‘tying of the Thali’, which is a gold pendant placed on seven strings that from the ‘manthrakodi’, and tied by the groom around the bride’s neck during the ceremony. The Thali is an ancient symbol of the covenant of marriage among Indians. The thali’s shape is based on a banyan leaf, an ancient symbol that represents fertility, abundance, longevity, divinity, and accomplishment.

The thali’s pure gold construction represents holiness, splendor, wealth, well-being, and incorruptibility. A cross made of seven small beads in the center of thali symbolises the bond of marriage between the two. The thali is placed on seven strings taken from the manthrakodi and tied by the groom around the bride’s neck during the ceremony. The knot reflects the permanence of marriage, and the bride eventually transfers the thali to another gold necklace gifted by the groom’s family and continues to wear it for the rest of her life. 

The Manthrakodi is a saree given as a gift to the bride from the groom and his family. Literally translated, its name means “garment of prayers.” The strands of the thali necklace are drawn from the manthrakodi and once the thali is tied around the bride’s neck, the manthrakodi is put over the bride’s head as a mantle by the groom. The draping of the manthrakodi reflects his promise to honor, protect, and provide for his new bride for the rest of their lives. Following the ritual, the groom’s sister will fold and place the manthrakodi on the bride’s arm to symbolize both her induction into the groom’s family and the couple’s vow to the Church.

We had two readings during our ceremony; the first was from The Old Testament – Jeremiah 31:31-32a, 33-34a. Our second reading was from the New Testament – 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:8a.

We absolutely love the pictures from Silvia and Tommaso of Punti di Bianco! They captured the day (and the entire weekend) so perfectly that we can’t stop looking at them!

Our photoshoot in Florence was incredible – the way they guided us through the city and captured stunning shots was truly amazing. They were an absolute pleasure to work with, and we couldn’t have asked for a better team to be by our side throughout the weekend.

Niccolò Isacchini was our videographer. Niccolò provided us with a video that was filmed and edited on the same day, watching it together was incredibly touching, allowing us to reflect on the beauty of the day.

We met on the dating app, Hinge, in the fall of 2021 and had our first date on October 7^th, 2021. We both were not planning to date people within our Indian culture, but things just worked out for us to match with each other, and we hit it off immediately. We dated for a year and nine months before getting engaged on 30th 2023. 

For our engagement, Thomas mentioned to me that we had a company party to attend on the rooftop of Ponce City Market in Atlanta, GA. When we arrived, I noticed a photographer and some children holding signs that spelled out ‘Marry Me’ out in front of PCM. That’s when it dawned on me what was happening. The setting was beautiful, and our family and friends added to the surprise by being there. We celebrated the occasion with an engagement dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Rumi’s Kitchen.

We were engaged for a year and three months before getting married on 7th October 2024, our first date and now wedding anniversary!

Grn Allestimenti provided a Tensile structure with pleated false ceiling and perimeter curtains. Rain was forecast on our wedding day and we opted to use the tent rather than take a chance.

The vendor worked with our last-minute change from an all-indoor backup plan for the reception and secured a beautiful tent for us.

We wanted very traditional and classic decor. White with gold accents and greenery. Instead of having a bridal party, we told our all guests to wear jewel tones and fall colours to contrast with the white and décor.

From the villa to the church, we wanted to highlight the classical beauty of Florence; we also wanted to use the welcome dinner to have a more relaxed feeling. The modern chic styling of The Stellar made the guests feel like they were at a classy aperitivo.

Our catering company was Roland’s. We wanted traditional Italian dishes for all aspects of the dinner; Rolands was able to provide fresh to order meals that all our guests were able to enjoy. There was no shortage of food, and everything tasted spectacular.

We didn’t want the traditional three tier cake and from the outset we knew we wanted the traditional Italian millefeuille with Chantilly cream and berries; something unique for our guests but a dish we knew would be delicious. Crafting the cake in front of our guests was a unique and memorable.

We had various meetings and options for music but when we spoke about our multiple events, Sara Ferrini and her team had a solution that met every one of our ideas. The sax and DJ set for the welcome dinner created a great atmosphere for our welcome dinner. Everyone was blown away by the singers and instruments at the church. We wanted a very specific “Bridgerton” music theme for the cocktail hour (hip-hop/pop/R&B instrumentals) and Sara brought in an amazing string quartet.

Throughout the night Sara herself acted as emcee, provided solo entertainment, then concluded the night by leading a group song & dance show to kick off the reception dance party! They did so much to keep our guests entertained and to help create the theme of great views, great food, & great music!

We chose Oceans by Martin Garrix and Khalid for our first dance. I had always wanted this song to be my first dance prior to meeting Thomas. Then we went to a concert and Khalid was the opener and I saw it as a sign that it was supposed to be our first dance song.

We had so many favorite moments! Some of the highlights were the cake cutting and the surprise fireworks show. Crafting the cake in front of our guests was a unique and memorable experience, made even sweeter by how delicious it turned out.

The fireworks were an unexpected delight that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Another standout was the same day edit video created by Niccolo and his team. Watching it together was incredibly touching, allowing us to reflect on the beauty of the day.

While we didn’t get to participate as much during the cocktail hour, we heard the prosciutto station, photobooth, and aperitivo drinks were a hit!

Doing an international wedding can be difficult but not nearly as stressful as being engaged in every aspect when you are nearby to oversee things. A few tips:

Fall in love with your venue and work from there. We always felt motivated during planning because we were so excited to have our guests feel the same sense of awe when we first visited our venue. Make sure you have a baseline for the number of guests as you start researching venues. 

Find a planner that has intimate knowledge of your venue and where you are getting married. They will know exactly what to do or who to call to make your ideas a reality. 

Have an idea of what you want and a rough budget so your planners can provide multiple vendors and levels of service for you to pick from. 

Specific for destination weddings, if you have exact requests make sure you communicate that. Your planners are skilled but they are also thinking about standards that are specific to your destination and juggling ideas that have come from couples before you. Help them help you by listing out the must-haves, wants, and things to avoid. 

Create milestone schedules with your planners for 180, 90, 60,30, and 15 days out. Work with them to create these checklists so that you can map out the progress as well as understand the work ahead. We were late to do this so all the progress we made months in advance didn’t feel like much when we were spending hours everyday during that last 30 days making final arrangements. In hindsight we could have confirmed a lot of things much earlier to ease our workload and avoid some stress. 

Start thinking about your wedding day in 15-30 minute segments. The day goes by so quickly and there is a lot more that happens than you ever would have thought about. Breaking down the timeline for the day will give you a lot of relief and keep you from feeling like your planners are just pulling you around. We were ultradetailed and had our entire wedding day mapped out so the schedule or directions from our team never felt sudden.

Have day-of coordinators. Our planners were amazing and they personally attended to our day-of coordination as well as having 2-3 more of their staff with us for all of our events. They kept things in order and were our proxies for anything that needed be to handled. 

At the 30 or 15 day-out mark be sure to confirm which of your vendors will need cash payments so you can make withdrawals prior to departing for your wedding.  

If you are doing a religious ceremony at a separate location from your reception be aware of the time between the end of the service and your cocktail hour. So much has to happen in this crucial window so give yourself enough of a gap. Better yet, if you have great entertainment, food, views, etc. provide a longer cocktail hour. Your guests will continue to relax into the evening and you’ll have a chance to participate. We missed out on many things that happened during cocktail hour while we were doing photos, getting a first look of the dining room, changing, etc.

Most importantly have fun and enjoy your night. Do the necessary planning ahead of time and get all the logistics out of your mind 24-48 hours before the start of your celebrations. Talk to 1 or 2 people you trust the most and give them your schedule and critical details; ask them to do you the favor of overseeing those things so you can enjoy the night. 99% percent chance there is nothing they need to do because you and your planners have already done all the hardwork but it will give you peace of mind.

While the wedding festivities were a blur we are so happy with how everything turned out and a lot of it had to do with planning up to a point then letting go and committing to enjoying the events knowing we and our team were well prepared. 

Last thing, get to know your vendors, planners, photographers, etc! These are the people that will keep you sane during the busiest day of your life. Being able to share a laugh with them, share your concerns, or just giving them a hug could be the small thing that helps you navigate a day you’ve been planning for months. Every person we worked with cared so much about our wedding and the happiness we entrusted them with. Your team of vendors truely care and want to make your day the best day. Enjoy your time with them and show them your appreciation.

If we had the time, we would have loved to be able to come to Florence one more time before the wedding for tastings, decoration samples, etc. Everything went well but I think a trip in the summer to meet with our planners, vendors, and doing a preliminary walk through would have helped us solidify the planning more easily.

We also wish we weren’t as time constrained due to the church ceremony only being able to begin at 15:30 in the afternoon. Had we been able to start a little bit earlierm we would have had a bigger gap before the start of the dinner to do photos, transportation, and get to mingle and enjoy the cocktail hour. 

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